Inside AdWords: Busting the PPC Jargon and Terminology, Part A

Something we hear time and again from our clients is how frustrating PPC terminology can be and we know paid search is complicated enough without throwing endless acronyms like CTR and CPC into the mix.

So today we starting our run through the essential PPC terminology and we’ll combine this into a single eBook once we’re done. But let’s get cracking because Section A alone makes for a chunky blog post.

Accelerated Ad Delivery – An AdWords ad delivery option that displays ads as often as possible until your budget runs out (the only other option is ‘Standard Delivery’)

Actual Cost Per Click – Otherwise known as ‘actual CPC,’ this is what you pay for each click, regardless of what you set as your Maximum Cost Per Click .

Ad Auction – The process Google runs every time a search is made to choose which ads display.

Ad Campaign – A collection of Ad Groups with a shared goal – for example, targeting people interested in used cars. You can (and should) have multiple campaigns running in your account.

Ad Center – Microsoft’s PPC platform, which you’ll use if you delve into paid advertising on Bing or Yahoo!

Ad Extensions – A bunch of ad features in AdWords that create richer ads, giving users more info and incentive to click.

Ad Group – A group of ads, keywords and bids within an ad campaign that share a slightly more focused goal – for example, people interested in Audi used cars. Again, ad campaigns can have multiple ad groups within them.

Ad Position – Where your ad displays within the vertical stack of chosen ads. Position one means your ad displays at the top of the pack and so forth.

EvanHalshaw.com sitting in position one of the ad stack for this search

Average CPC – The average amount you have been charged for clicks on an ad after all adjustments.

Average Position – The average position your ad ranks among other selected ads in the same auction.

So that wraps it up for Section A of our essential PPC glossary and you’ll be glad to hear this is the largest section of the lot (you can thanks all those terms starting with “ad” for that). Which means the worst of it is out of the way and you can probably already see this PPC terminology stuff isn’t all that after all.

We’ll be back again shortly with more terms for you too so be sure to pay another visit soon and follow us on social for updates as they happen.